GOP rising star (and economic charlatan) Paul Ryan is at least honest about extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
In their quest to extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans, many leading Republicans have invented a fantasy world in which tax cuts always pay for themselves through increased economic growth....
But on CNBC today, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking GOP member on the House Budget Committee, splashed some cold water on that delusion, saying dismissively, “I’m not one of these people who says that say that all tax cuts pay for themselves.”
Nonetheless, he still wants to cut the rich a massive break.
"[W]e can cut spending to pay for it," said Ryan, who would likely take over the Budget Committee if Republicans win control of the House this fall.
"That's the budget I brought to the floor last year, when we had a budget," he added. "So there's plenty of room to cut spending to accommodate those tax rates."
You know where the $700 billion would come from in Ryan's budget, right? Those that he didn't just pull of thin air come from dismantling program like Medicare.
In its first decade, most of the alleged savings in the Ryan plan come from assuming zero dollar growth in domestic discretionary spending, which includes everything from energy policy to education to the court system. This would amount to a 25 percent cut once you adjust for inflation and population growth. How would such a severe cut be achieved? What specific programs would be slashed? Mr. Ryan doesn’t say.
After 2020, the main alleged saving would come from sharp cuts in Medicare, achieved by dismantling Medicare as we know it, and instead giving seniors vouchers and telling them to buy their own insurance. Does this sound familiar? It should. It’s the same plan Newt Gingrich tried to sell in 1995.
Just to be clear, the Ryan plan is to cut the taxes the richest one percent of Americans, raise taxes on the middle class, almost wholly privatize Social Security, gut Medicare and Medicaid, and get rid of the Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as incentives for employers to provide health insurance.
So, yeah, Ryan is completely realistic about tax cuts for the wealthy not paying for themselves. The rest of us will be paying for them, an idea Ryan's Republican leadership isn't even willing to sign on to, at least not in public.